Song of the Statue
Who so loveth me that heWill give his precious life for me?I shall be set free from the stoneIf some one drowns for me in the sea,I shall have life, life of my own,--For life I ache.
I long for the singing blood,The stone is so still and cold.I dream of life, life is good.Will no one love me and be boldAnd me awake?
I weep and weep alone,Weep always for my stone.What joy is my blood to meIf it ripens like red wine?It cannot call back from the seaThe life that was given for mine,Given for Love's sake.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- ache n.
- A name given to several species of plants; as, smallage, wild celery, parsley. Holland. [F. ache, L. apium parsley.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Song of the Statue is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, translated by Jessie Lemont, with an introduction by H.T. (New York: Tobias A. Wright, 1918), Project Gutenberg ebook #38594, the Jessie Lemont translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Rainer Maria Rilke, Song of the Statue, in Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #38594, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/rilke-poems-lemont/song-of-the-statue.html, id L27734.
Form and metre
Song of the Statue is 18 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABAB- heA · meA · stoneB · seaA · ownB · ache
- 2 ABAB- bloodA · coldB · goodA · boldB · awake
- 3 AABCBC- aloneA · stoneA · meB · wineC · seaB · mineC · sake
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Who so loveth me that he | 7 | ······· |
| Will give his precious life for me? | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I shall be set free from the stone | 8 | ········ |
| If some one drowns for me in the sea, | 9 | ········· |
| I shall have life, life of my own,-- | 8 | ········ |
| For life I ache. | 4 | ···· |
| I long for the singing blood, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| The stone is so still and cold. | 7 | ······· |
| I dream of life, life is good. | 7 | ······· |
| Will no one love me and be bold | 8 | ········ |
| And me awake? | 4 | ··˘/ |
| I weep and weep alone, | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Weep always for my stone. | 6 | ·/···· |
| What joy is my blood to me | 7 | ······· |
| If it ripens like red wine? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| It cannot call back from the sea | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The life that was given for mine, | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Given for Love's sake. | 5 | /˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.